Re: Sharp rise in Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Spending for U.S. Families

rose wrote:

When AHRQ's analysts looked at 2003 -- the latest year for which MEPS
data on this topic are currently available -- they found that
nonelderly Americans with private, nongroup coverage were the most
likely to have high family-level health-related spending, reflecting
the high premiums and high deductibles common to such policies. Nearly
78% had family-level out-of-pocket spending exceeding $2000 a year,
compared with 55.7% of those with private group insurance, 15.9% of the
uninsured, and 14.0% of those with Medicaid or other public insurance.

Here is something to chew on.

What is the difference, in terms of cost to the insurer, between a
person in a group plan & a person in a non-group plan? Are people in a
non-group plan somehow more expensive to cover? Somehow, I highly doubt
that.

Look at it this way, if you were employed & covered under a group plan,
then change jobs to one that doesn't offer insurance, you're still the
same person that they covered before. Why does you're premium suddenly
become more expensive, and the deductible higher?

Why can't everyone belong to one big group? I mean, correct me if I'm
wrong here, but, the concept behind insurance is that you will collect
premiums from more healthy people than sick ones, to offset the risk to
the insurer.

Doesn't it make sense then, to insure as many people as you can, to
broaden the base? If the individual, private premium is so expensive,
aren't you locking out potential customers?

Wouldn't it also make your insurance "portable" if you weren't locked in
to an employer's group? If an employer wishes to offer insurance
benefits, they could choose to pay x% of your premium. If they don't
offer insurance benefits, you pay the full premium, but it doesn't
increase just because you changed jobs. But you pay the *same* premium,
with the same plan, and the same deductible.

Wouldn't this increase competition among insurers?

Hmmm.

Alex
.

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